1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for sensing and evaluating balance and, more particularly, to such a method and apparatus which are particularly useful in isolating for evaluation the physical capabilities of persons having an impaired sense of balance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The sense of balance in human beings is critical to a wide variety of physical activities. It has long been known that this sense of balance is dependent upon a number of physical capabilities and environmental circumstances. Thus, it is known that such physical capabilities as sensing by the vestibular system of the inner ear, the somatosensory system, vision, strength, range of motion and the capability for flexion and extension of portions of the body influence the capability for maintaining balance. As to the environmental circumstances, such conditions as the stability of the supporting surface, time, control and general physical environment can influence the capability for maintaining balance.
More recently, it has become known that other, more subtle influences also affect the ability to maintain balance. For example, there are cognitive and noncognitive abilities which play a part in a person's capability for maintaining balance. Thus, noncognitive responses to physical stimuli influence the ability to maintain balance. Physiotherapists, for example, refer to capabilities of this type as "engrams." Engrams refer to the body's instinctive ability to react to even very subtle physical stimuli to maintain balance, such as by extension or flexion of the legs to shift the body's center of gravity. The speed and rapidity with which the human body can so respond, plays a considerable part in the overall balance capability of the individual.
Knowledge of the multitude of individual factors so influencing the overall balance capability is of particular importance in developing programs of rehabilitation for persons with physical disabilities due to such causes as disease, injury, age and the like. There has not heretofore been a means by which these factors could successfully be isolated for evaluation in the process of developing a plan for rehabilitation of such individuals.
Therefore, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus for sensing and evaluating balance which is capable of use in isolating one or more of the factors influencing a person's capability of maintaining balance; which can be employed as a diagnostic tool in evaluating a person's sense of balance for purposes of designing a program of rehabilitation specifically suited to that individual; which can be employed by the individual in practicing the capabilities required in maintaining balance so as to develop new skills relative thereto; which can be constructed in a wide variety of forms specifically directed to the particular diagnostic requirements; and which is inexpensive to acquire and use.